The lie we were told as kids
was this: The end of American liberty would come at the hands of the political
right.

Conservatives would take away
our right to speak our minds, and use the power of government to silence
dissent. The right would intimidate our teachers and professors, and coerce the
young.

And then, with the universities
in thrall, with control of the apparatus of the state (and the education
bureaucracy), the right would have dominion over a once-free people.

. . .

But the lie is obvious now,
isn't it?

Because it is not conservatives
who coerced today's young people or made them afraid of ideas that challenge
them. Conservatives did not shame people into silence, or send thugs out on
college campuses to beat down those who wanted to speak.

The left did all that.

It's there in front of you, the
thuggish mobs of the left killing free speech at American universities. The
thugs call themselves antifas, for anti-fascists.

They beat people up and break
things and set fires and intimidate. These are not anti-fascists. These are
fascists. This is what fascists do.

. . .

What is the cost for all this?

Free speech, without which
there is no republic.

American universities were once
thought to be the last great refuge of ideas, where ideas could flourish and be
challenged and debated. But today, the university is the place where liberty
and ideas go to die.

. . .

Right-wing provocateur Ann
Coulter has been silenced at Berkeley, where the free speech movement was born.
And other intellectuals, including Charles Murray and Heather Mac Donald, have
been silenced at other colleges, attacked by mobs.

If the left agrees with your
views, you may speak. If the left doesn't agree, they will shut you down. This
is America now.

. . .

University administrators have
made a show of wringing their hands. But they're hypocrites. They're part of
this. They are of the same cloth. They allowed this seed to bloom. They watered
it, by giving in to the young who demanded a safe space from intellectual
challenge.

Safe spaces are not about
learning or critical thinking. Safe spaces belong to education camps, where
future bureaucrats are trained in the Orwellian shaping of language and the
culling of threatening ideas.

. . .

All speech challenging the
status quo is offensive — to the establishment. And free speech is what
American liberty is about.

Unless, of course, you're of
the hard left, and can hunt free speech at American universities and crush it.

That's not fiction. That's not
fantasy. And it is not a lie. It's happening now, in the United States.

Friday, April 28, 2017

When Fox News dumped Bill O’Reilly and 'The Factor,' it moved Tucker Carlson
into the 8pm slot. While I have not watched most of his debut week, I did watch his interview with Richard Dreyfuss. This was not your usual Hollywood celebrity interview. Have a look (Dreyfuss segment starts around the 1:15 mark):

Dreyfuss's website describing the initiative to reinstate civics in school curricula is here.

Once upon a time, David Brooks was considered the
house conservative at the New York Times. But in his April 21 New York
Times column, he put President
Donald J. Trump on a list of "strong men" that includes Turkey's
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and North Korea's Kim Jong-un. Mr. Brooks noted that
Erdoğan has "dismantle[d] democratic institutions and replace[d] them with
majoritarian dictatorship." The Times columnist went on to assert:
"While running for office, Donald Trump violated every norm of
statesmanship built up over these many centuries[.]" Mr. Brooks,
however, does not elaborate, explain, or elucidate the nature of the alleged
violations.

But when it comes to discussion of President
Trump, NeverTrumps like David Brooks feel no need to place their anti-Trump
views on a foundation of fact. For Trump-haters, the truth is in the
accusation. And so, comparing President Trump to Turkey's Erdoğan, Mr.
Brooks does not set forth the democratic institutions dismantled by Mr. Trump,
nor does he provide evidence of the "majoritarian dictatorship" that
was constructed during the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
How could he, there being no such dismantling, no such dictatorship here?

Mr. Brooks recognizes "the collapse of
liberal values at home," citing "fragile thugs who call themselves
students [who] shout down and abuse speakers in a weekly basis." But
are these illiberals to be found under the banner of Trumpism – or under the
banner of the totalitarianism of left?

. . .

The threat to the American spirit of liberty is
not to be found among conservatives, or in the corridors of today's White
House. The threats to democracy, to free speech, to the free flow of
information are to be found on the left side of the political divide, from
neo-totalitarians who, like the execrable Howard Dean, would limit
free speech to persons who agree with the political biases
of leftists – with the encouragement of NeverTrumps in the media like
David Brooks, who lack the ability to distinguish a duly elected American
president from the brutal dictator of a totalitarian state.

McConnell has
voiced confidence that Republicans will nominate “electable” candidates
as they seek to grow their narrow majority during an election cycle in which
Democrats will be defending 23 seats to just eight for the GOP.

. . .

A few battles
are already shaping up in 2018.

In Ohio, it is
unclear whether the GOP establishment will back Mandel, who lost to Brown in
2012.

The Club for
Growth is backing Mandel. In 2010, it helped defeat former Sen. Bob Bennett
(Utah), one of McConnell’s best friends, in a GOP primary.

Rep. Pat
Tiberi (R-Ohio), a senior member of the Ways and Means Committee, has amassed
$6.3 million in campaign funds and might be seen as a stronger candidate by
Washington Republicans.

“We’re
supporting Josh Mandel in Ohio. I think the establishment would probably prefer
Pat Tiberi, but any competent Republican consultant would strongly advise
Tiberi not to run,” said Andrew Roth, vice president for government affairs at
the Club for Growth. “The establishment should like Mandel.

That word “electable.” The GOPe wanted
Jeb! as the 2016 candidate, because he was “electable.” That’s how they
described Mitt Romney. Sounds like the GOPe is going to go to the mat to keep
the UniParty intact (read: their noses in the trough).

Monday, April 17, 2017

The Boston Marathon took place earlier
today, and The Washington Examiner reported the following inspirational story:

Retired Texas
Marine Staff Sgt. Jose Sanchez is a recovering amputee, but that didn't stop
him from leaving an indelible mark on this year's Boston Marathon.

Sanchez was
injured in 2011 while serving in Afghanistan and has been private about the
incident until now.

For five
years, a gift Sanchez received from his fellow Marines remained unopened. Yet,
it was that gift that changed his perspective and spurred him from his
antisocial state.

The gift was a
large American flag signed by his fellow troops with notes of encouragement and
inspiration.

Sanchez was
determined to not merely put the flag away, but to display it in honor of the
troops who motivated him to get past his anger and depression and find a
positive outlet to give back. So he proudly displayed the flag as he ran the
Boston Marathon.

Friday, April 14, 2017

It was probably First Lady Dolley
Madison who introduced the egg roll to Washington, DC. A White House “frozen in time” page provides
the history of the White House egg roll here.

The countdown to the Trump Administration's first Easter Egg Roll is here. (And if you do an online search, you will find the usual media carping about the 2017 White House Easter Egg Roll, from Vanity Fair wailing over how disorganized the administration is, to the NY Times reporting in its "Politics" section how behind the staff is in its planning, to claims that the Egg Roll was cancelled for this year. Is there anything the MSM won't use to try to discredit the Trump Administration?

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Sorry, I have been
off the air for a couple of weeks, and when I got back online this weekend, I
found a column by Ann Coulter on HER solution to the healthcare repeal-replace
dilemma. Here’s are several extracts and the whole thing (from a little over a week ago)
is here.

It’s always impossible to repeal laws that require Ann to pay for
greedy people, because the greedy run out on the streets wailing that the
Republicans are murdering them.

Obamacare is uniquely awful because the free stuff isn’t paid for
through income taxes: It’s paid for through MY health insurance premiums. This
is unfortunate because I wanted to buy health insurance.

Perhaps you’re not aware — SINCE YOU EXEMPTED YOURSELVES FROM
OBAMACARE, CONGRESS — but buying or selling health insurance is illegal in
America.

Right now, there’s no free market because insurance is insanely
regulated not only by Obamacare, but also by the most corrupt organizations in
America: state insurance commissions. (I’m talking to you, New York!)

Federal and state laws make it illegal to sell health insurance
that doesn’t cover a laughable array of supposedly vital services based on
bureaucrats’ medical opinions of which providers have the best lobbyists.

As a result, it’s illegal to sell health insurance that covers any
of the medical problems I’d like to insure against. Why can’t the GOP keep
Obamacare for the greedy — but make it legal for Ann to buy health insurance?

This is how it works today:

ME:I’m
perfectly healthy, but I’d like to buy health insurance for heart disease,
broken bones, cancer, and everything else that a normal person would ever need,
but no more.

INSURANCE COMPANY: That
will be $700 a month, the deductible is $35,000, no decent hospital will take
it, and you have to pay for doctor’s visits yourself. But your plan covers
shrinks, infertility treatments,sex
change operations, autism spectrum disorder treatment,drug rehaband
67 other things you will never need.

INSURANCE COMPANY UNDER ANN’S PLAN: That will be $50 a month, the
deductible is $1,000, you can see any doctor you’d like, and you have full
coverage for any important medical problems you could conceivably have in a
million years.

Mine is a two-step plan (and you don’t have to do the second step,
so it’s really a one-step plan).

STEP 1: Congress doesn’t repeal Obamacare! Instead, Congress
passes a law, pursuant to its constitutional power to regulate interstate
commerce, that says: “In America, it shall be legal to sell health insurance on
the free market. This law supersedes all other laws, taxes, mandates, coverage
requirements, regulations or prohibitions, state or federal.”

The end. Love, Ann.

There will be no whining single mothers storming Congress with
their pre-printed placards. People who want to stay on Obamacare can. No one is
taking away anything. They can still have health insurance with free pony
rides. It just won’t be paid for with Ann’s premiums anymore, because Ann will
now be allowed to buy health insurance on the free market.

Americans will be free to choose among a variety of health
insurance plans offered by willing sellers, competing with one another to
provide the best plans at the lowest price. A nationwide market in health
insurance will drive down costs and improve access — just like everything else
we buy here in America!

Within a year, most
Americans will be buying health insurance on the free market (and half of the
rest will beillegal aliens). We’ll have TV ads with cute little
geckos hawking amazing plans and young couples bragging about their broad
coverage and great prices from this or that insurance company.

The Obamacare plans will
still have the “essential benefits” (free pony rides) that are so important to
NPR’sMara Liasson, but the free market plans will have
whatever plans consumers agree to buy and insurance companies agree to sell —
again, just like every other product we buy here in America.

. . .

Until the welfare program
is decoupled from the insurance market,nothing will work.Otherwise, it’s like forcing grocery
stores to pay for everyone to have a house. A carton of milk would suddenly
cost $10,000.

. . .

STEP 2: Next year, Congress formulates a better way of delivering
health care to the welfare cases, which will be much easier since there will be
a LOT fewer of them.

No actual money-making
business is going to survive by taking the welfare cases — the ones that will
coverillegal aliensand
Mara Liasson’s talk therapy — so the greedy will get government plans.

But by then, only a minority of Americans will be on the “free”
plans. (Incidentally, this will be a huge money-saver — if anyone cares about
the federal budget.) Eighty percent of Americans will already have good health
plans sold to them by insurance companies competing for their business.

With cheap plans available, a lot of the greedy will go ahead and
buy a free market plan. Who wants to stand in line at the DMV to see a doctor
when your neighbors have great health care plans for $50 a month?